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[Cknarf]

"Thanks..." Frank grunted, as he dangled from the lever above, his legs swinging beneath him.  Now he had to get down.

He began to swing, in an attempt to build up enough momentum to make it back to the platform he had jumped from. 

Sh*t.

The lever's rubber grip had worked loose, and the downward angle of the lever was causing it to slip.

SH*T.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

F*ck this! Vayne needs my help! With all the mercs and mutants dead, Irina holstered her Mattock and drew her shotgun. She checked and she had 20 more shells.

 

"OooRah!" She bolted out of her cover and onto the floor with Vayne and Golt, circling around the two angry Krogan. If I remember right Golt is the big one. Right. Now which leg... they're seeming to circle clockwise, so that means he pushes with his right leg, so if I damage that it'll weaken him and give Vayne an edge. Yeah, that's the plan. Don't forget to duck and roll.

 

Irina stayed low and ran to within six feet of the giant Krogan and fired a shell of tri-ball that hit him directly in his right leg. Golt took a swipe at her, but she ducked and rolled out of the way. Vayne wasted no opportunity to land a blow on Golt.

 

"You need helpers, Vayne?"

 

"Look who's talking. Yours are dead, just like you."

 

Golt pushed and smashed into Vayne, but Irina fired and hit Golt in the right leg with another shell of tri-ball. This one penetrated his armor. Golt winced, and Vayne countered again. Irina rolled away and reloaded.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne saw his opportunity as he landed another enforcement punch to golts face, a small crack forming in the helmet as he grabbed hold of golts armored shoulder, holding on as he shoved his other hand at golts face, "Choke on this, Golt." He yelled as he activated his ballistic blades, firing the blades at his helmet at close range. Golt barely flinched, and reared back as he slammed his head hard into vaynes own, causing an indent in the wall he was pressed in.

 

His vision swam a moment as for the first time, his eye seemed to focus on the human getting involved, going wide. "GET AWAY!!!"  Vayne yelled right as his ballistic blades detonated, sending a large fissure through the side of golts helmet and drawing blood as the larger krogan tossed vayne aside like a ragdoll, the older krogan sliding accross the floor towards Irina and coming to a stop next to her, working to get up.

 

"He's...He's mine..." Vayne said as he worked to get up, blood coming from between his crest and forehead, running over his eyepatch, "A captain's...gotta lay down the law...Discipline a crewmen who steps outta line..." He said as he stood, anger boiling inside of him as he drew his bakara shotgun. Seeing golt, getting beaten up by the man, it brought up bad thoughts. Thoughts he did his best to keep in line, dark ones he had tried his best to keep from slipping into every time he went into battle.

 

"And you Golt..." He said loud enough for the krogan to hear, a snarl on vaynes face as his voice rose, "You've been out of ****** line for far too long. And now its time to put you into place, in a ****** body bag!!" He said as he charged forward, holding the sawed off shotgun close as he let lose the super powered shot, the blast aimed right for golts chest with steam pouring forth as it cooled itself, leaving a smoke trail behind the krogan.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Essul pressed himself into cover as he pulled out his kishock harpoon gun. A hallway was both good and bad for sniping, on the one hand it offered little cover and helped to funnel folks down a shooting gallery, making them easy shots. On the other hand, a hallway offered little cover and often made it easy for folks to line up shots on you as well.

 

So essul decided that the best method to deal with the two threats present was to work on eliminating both as best as possible. One temporary solution, one permanent one. Essul gathered up biotic energy from his hand as he focused it into a warp field, and popped up from his cover to hurl it at the machine gunner. He ducked down as he felt the shots panging off his shields, dropping them lower and lower until he was safely behind again.

 

He activated his tactical cloak as he heard the pause in firing, guessing that the gunner had stopped to get out of the way. Essuls window of opportunity was breif, and he popped out of cover from the side as he got on his scope, looking through the crosshairs for signs of the sniper. He was charging his shot, the rifle letting out a telltale low hum as he finally managed to spot it. In the darkness, with nothing against it visible, a single dot of light, that essul saw line up upon his hunched figure as the other sniper no doubt got their bead on him.

 

Essul pulled the trigger and his harpoon went sailing through the air, it soared like any other bullet, the massively long spear aimed right for right above the lasersight as it found its mark. The cloak around the sniper shimmered out first, revealing the sniper holding her rifle, a massive still hot spike running through its scope, and stuck halfway through her eye and head. The dead body slumped forward as essuls cloak shimmered out, and he ducked back into cover, ejecting the thermal clip without a word and getting ready to fight the gunner.

[Kel Riever]

The blast from Vayne’s shotgun blew into Golt, staggering him back through the hole he made when he charged.  Golt’s shield and biotic barrier were down, while his Berserker armor’s chestplate was blown open, saving the krogan with its last defense.  Despite the power of the shot, in ordinary circumstances, Golt might not even have stepped back, but Irina’s rounds piercing his leg had weakened his balance.  He was regenerating, but Golt bled a river through where the tri-ball had hit.

For whatever reason, a malfunction, to see better, the ruptured tube, or even that Golt wasn’t thinking straight, Golt reached up and tore his damaged helmet off to hurl it at Vayne.  He was horribly scarred from centuries of battle, but it only made him more terrifying to look at.  With the distance put between the two krogan, he drew a Striker assault rifle in one hand and an Inferno grenade in the other.  A shot from the Striker missed Vayne, but kept him back for a precious second, in which Golt, with his krogan’s wide peripheral vision, spotted the attempt to save the Medusa by Frank and Avan.

“Get away from that you parasites!”  Golt dropped the Inferno grenade between himself and Vayne, turned, and ran towards the Engine room’s control panel. The grenade burst instantly, and at its close range, caught the back armor of Golt, but also created a blazing wall between him and Vayne.  Golt wasn’t fast, particularly with his leg wound, but he came on like a battering ram.
 

[Kel Riever]

The firefight was close enough that Luscious began sweating again.  Iyana seemed calm, but intent, as if listening for something beyond the hail of bullets.  Luscious stood and stepped off the dais, his instincts foolishly moving him to want to see what was happening, as the blue face tattoo woman was at the doorway to the bridge, firing in controlled bursts to suppress and defend. 

Iyana put a gentle but firm hand on Luscious’ shoulder, pulling him away from where he might be hit by a stray round.  “Captain…move back.”  She reassessed, and then said, “Jess, that harlot, thinks we don’t know her ship.  And she’s with a highly trained team.  They could keep pushing, but Jess is crafty.”

“Trying another way?” Luscious speculated.

Iyana smirked.  There were only two other mercs on the bridge besides the face tattoo lady.  “Get up in the shafts,” Iyana ordered one, “They don’t know we’ve planned for that.  Use the flamer.”  The merc nodded, and moved to unlock an armored maintenance hatch in the ceiling of the bridge.

With a subtle shift in her expression, Iyana put a tinge of helplessness into her words, “They’re getting very close, Luscious.  We have an escape available behind us, to the port side cargo area.  You know it has been modified and they missed the change.  The people there will help us get away, and there are guardians to assist us.  Perhaps, the better part of valor is discretion.”

“No,” Luscious countered, “This bridge is mine.”  He hoisted the Predator pistol in a melodramatic fashion.  “If you say that you escaped prison with less, and you have faith in me, then we can hold them off and Jess Stone’s body will be at my feet, one way or the other.  If I need to, I will protect you.”

Even for Iyana, it was difficult to hide a smile, so she grinned beautifully.  Though there was mockery, and humor in the expression, most of all there was satisfaction.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Get away from them ya mangy dingo!" Irina shouted and ran after Golt. She fired again at his right leg, hitting it and severing the posterior cruciate ligament. Golt wailed and fell to the floor short of his goal, but his bloodrage kicked into high gear as he turned his attention to the human female.

 

"So, you want to play, human? With that toy gun?" He said as he struggled to his feet and began limping toward her. He aimed his assault rifle, and Irina dove and rolled just as he fired, and she fired the second barrel at his chest wound. His shot winged her in the left shoulder and detonated in the wall behind her. Irina's shot staggered him, but she was hurting. It wasn't anything that medigel couldn't fix, but there was no time for that.

 

"I told you, he's mine! And you're bleeding!" Vayne shouted.

 

"I ain't got time to bleed!" Irina shouted as saw Golt stand and scream in place and start moving toward her toward her. Blood was coming out of his mouth now. He couldn't run. He limped when he walked. "We can take him out, Vayne!" Irina reloaded.

 

"I'm going to tear you apart, human!"

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne ran through the flames as he felt the fires searing and clinging to his armor, feeling more like he was wearing an oven that was baking him alive. He felt the pain, but even as he did and felt the rage boling in him, he wasn't going into a bloodrage. He felt no suppression of pain or overwhelming power, and instead just the burning pain of the fire as he burst through the other side of the wall.

 

He saw irina, golt coming towards her, and he ran for golt, armor still on fire, as he sidelined the krogan and took him to the floor. Vayne was on top of golt, rearing back as he threw punch after punch to the krogan, enforcement gauntlets online as he worked to try and knock the other for a loop. Golt reached up and grabbed one of vaynes hands, squeezing as the armor creaked and the fires began to die down on vayne. Vayne reached to his waist and drew the krogan dagger from its sheath, plunging it down right at golt, striking him right in the the eye as the other krogan roared in pain and twisted vayne's other hand in the process, bones snaping beneath as golt laid a massive punch to vaynes head, hearing suddenly going out and his vision bluring a moment as golt shoved him off.

 

Vayne worked to get back on his feet, hearing golt slowly getting up as his heavy, limping footsteps came closer and closer. "You always were a weak one...captain sangar..." Golt said as he drew the dagger from his head, holding it as he reached down and grabbed vayne by the collar, dragging him up with a grunt of pain in his legs, vayne looking at the golt in his now one eye, blood running down the battle scarred krogans face as he worked to reach for his gun. "Always holding the crew back...I should have killed you, instead of making you a trophy for that ****** batarian..." he said as he slammed vayne agaisnt a wall hard, knocking the wind out of vayne as he reared back his other hand.

 

"Time to fix that..." He said as he plunged the knife into vayne, his armors weakened state and golts strength allowing it to cut through the heavy plating and vayne to feel the cold steel enter his body. Vayne let out a gasp as golt held the dagger in place, before the quickly snapped the blade, tossing the handle aside as vayne kept himself pressed against the wall.

 

Golt turned around with a deep laugh, looking to irina as he stalked towards her slowly, when a voice cut in.

 

"T-typical....." Vayne said through gritted teeth as golt stopped and turned to look at him, "Went for the slow option..." Vayne said as golt charged him with a roar, intent on finishing vayne off quickly this time since he insisted so much. Vayne lifted the bakara shotgun and aimed it for golts head, firing it off as the heavy round tore out and clipped the krogan in the side of the face, golt screaming as his hands went up to shield them instinctively, flesh and muscle blown apart and hanging from the left side of golts face, still alive and now more angry then ever.

 

Vayne slid down, his other wrist now sprained, blood pouring slowly from the wound in his chest, his breathing heavy as the steam billowed around him from his gun. Now it was up to the others, to take down this monster.

[Terca]

It was infuriating.

 

The ratman was in many ways the opposite of Golt. He was fast, too fast, and was able to toss himself large distances to obscure his body from shots being fired, or avoid them altogether. In the darkness of the room he was unobstructed and even though he showed up clearly in thermal imaging Eteon was having a difficult time keeping track of him. Her shotgun was proving useless as even though the smart choke allowed her to tighten the spread to try and hit him at a distance his mobility made it so that the rounds would miss. Overriding the tech was possible, but it took time, and she was having a hard enough time keeping up as it was.

 

The Rat was struggling to find a way out, dodging in this particular environment wasn't difficult for him so he could focus mainly on finding some sort of exit. The air was thick and muggy meaning that circulation had to be poor and their was a tiny exit. He needed to get back to Golt and Engineering to stop the boarding party from correcting. He had felt the moment of vertigo earlier that made it clear the correction had begun but it could be undone easily.

 

Eteon had given up on her shotgun and placed it back on her back before activating audio-sense and thermal tagging. She ran swiftly from her position along a crate up to the platform the ratman was peering about it, doing so quietly. The mutant caught sight of her before she was in range to grab him and hissed before leaping sideways onto a beam of metal that had been bent into a sort of haphazard cross. It shifted under his weight and began to shift though it caught against some low-laying debris after a moment.

 

"You're a dead pyjak." Eteon said, her voice being transferred to her external speakers. She lifted her carnifex and fired to his left side, expecting him to dodge right to try and catch him. He knew the ploy and instead leaped directly at the Cabal, snarling. She was a bit surprised, but not stunned, and when he was in range she warped in place forcing the man to miss her and skid along the small platform.

 

He wasn't done though, and digging his claws into the ground he turned himself and threw himself backwards off the platform, drawing a paladin and firing at Eteon as she phased back into view. She sidestepped the first two bullets since the man's aim was thrown off by his descent but the last one clipped her shoulder dropping a chunk of her shields as she tried to relocate the rat. She crept to the other side of the platform but the clicking of the man's claws was a useful indication that he was creeping away, still searching for the opening in the room.

 

"There's no way out." She yelled again. "This place is sealed. The Oxygen content is dropping and there is no air movement. You don't have a way out."

 

She put away her carnifex and tested her blades before listening to the change in sounds. The man had been clicking his claws against each other as he had been walking, possibly a nervous tick which he stopped when he had heard the Turian tell him he was a dead man wasting his air. How dare she?! HOW DARE SHE?! 

 

Enraged, he climbed on top of a crate and bellowed out into the abyss of the room. "Do you think you've won ******?! Do you think you've killed me ****?! I'll make you bring me back to engineering with your brain bleeding out your ears!" Hysterical laughter followed, and its volume made it difficult for Eteon to pinpoint where the man was with all the echoing noise. Then silence.

 

With the ratman stopping his incessant clicking it was made particularly more difficult for Eteon to hear him. Before, with the obvious noise making his location clear she was able to track his general direction even if she was struggling to get him on her thermal vision. Now, with the Medusa correcting its course and accelerating out of the range of the planet's gravity many of the randomly stacked objects were starting to shift. The false positives on his position were irritating her, and being visible when the man had a high-powered handgun was less than ideal. 

 

Jumping down from the platform she debated focusing her biotics, but the purple glow from that would probably just make her an easier target to sight out. Unfortunately, it seemed likely that she would have do tease the man out, as he was either not moving or very aware that she was having difficulty detecting him and making use of that.

[Kel Riever]

Morgan had to add his firepower to counter the bridge defense, even though he could only add it sporadically as he had to watch the rear.  When he saw Dahlia hit, he called over to her, “You all right?”  After she cleared the red robe from her, she nodded while she applied medigel.  Morgan, unwilling to let the machine gun go unanswered, switched to his Kovalyov, and let fly a three-round burst.  The machine gunner returned fire in his direction, but he moved completely behind cover again. 

Checking the rear once more, Morgan saw it was clear.  Then a fear gripped him; when Morgan had fired, someone was missing from the team.  The machine gunner didn’t keep zoning in on Morgan, spreading her shots through the general corridor to keep everyone back, which let Morgan launch off another three-round burst.  This time, Morgan still protected by his tech armor, peaked to take an account of the team members, knowing their positions even if they were cloaked.

Jess was missing.

 

“Jess!”  Morgan’s shout, his fire, and undoubtedly the glowing hue of his tech armor invited another concentrated flurry of projectiles before the machine gun covered the corridor once more.  Dahlia had heard him and shook her head back and forth, indicating she hadn’t seen where she went either.  Essul, with his dead on harpoon shot and Naleena were clearly doing what they could to move in on the bridge, so Morgan couldn’t get a response from them.  As a reflex, Morgan tried calling for Jess into his com before he remembered that it was jammed.

“Sonofa…” It was more than a light expression for Morgan in this case.  He felt anxiety grip him, and he had to fight off making a bad reaction.  Not alone.  Not alone! Morgan yelled in his mind.  It wasn’t Jess, who was capable, that had him nearly panicking, it was Iyana.  Someone pulling away from the group, someone alone, it was exactly what Iyana wanted.  Morgan’s urge was to go after Jess, but just like in a bad horror movie, or someone baited by a sniper, he knew in his head how doing that would likely turn out.

But Morgan was frozen.  He wasn’t moving ahead with the group, he stopped adding his firepower, and he wasn’t checking the rear.  A veteran of war and countless firefights, Morgan was caught between his fear and his need to continue on.  How long does Iyana need with Jess? Morgan’s dark thought asked him, and he knew the answer was not long at all.

His body acting despite his fear, Morgan went into action again, sluggishly.  He fired another burst, but this time one of the rounds of the Revenant caught him before he dropped completely back into cover.  Most of the impact was absorbed by the hard light protection, but the penetration took down his shield and clipped the emitter from that particular tech plate.  Morgan wasn’t wounded, but with the damaged emitter, Morgan was now missing the tech armor plate for the right side of his chest.

There was nothing to do, but trust and hope.  Something needed to change with what was happening in the corridor and fast.  If Morgan located Iyana it would be all he needed to know.  Somewhere inside, time slowed for Morgan.  He checked his assault rifle, and made sure it was cooled down entirely.  When he popped back out of cover, Morgan grit his teeth, and let rip a stream of full autofire at the machine gunner.  He was braced, and his adrenaline had him clamp down on the intense recoil of the Kovalyov.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina saw Vayne's shotgun round rip off the left side of Golt's face. Target. Then saw Vayne go down. Her plan changed when the giant Krogan decided to let Vayne bleed out and face her.
 

"You've got this," she said to herself. This is f*cking crazy. If it works, he's dead. If it doesn't, you're dead. What the hell? Did you want to live forever?

 

Irina pulled a concussion grenade The goal: the concussion grenade in the chest wound and slide away before he could grab her. Keep holdiing the fuse. She held the grenade in her left hand, and the shotgun in her right; ripped the pin out with her teeth, let out a roar, and ran straight at Golt. Golt smacked his fists together and got ready. Irina somersaulted and reached up to stuff the grenade but Golt grabbed her by the neck, carried her back to the wall, and slammed her against it.

 

"Now the fun begins." Golt said.

 

"Yes, it does." Irina said, her vision now blurred, she shoved the sawed off shotgun under his jaw and fired both barrels.

 

A confused look appeared in the Krogan's eyes. His grip relaxed and Irina dropped to the floor. He staggered back, the top of his head now on the ceiling of the room. He collapsed to the floor. It was over. Irina using her last wits realized she still had a live grenade in her left hand and tossed it in the direction of where they had first entered the room. It detonated on impact. Irina fell unconscious.

[Terca]

Only the hissing of air through teeth gave Eteon a buffer between when she knew she was being attacked and when she actually was struck.

 

Ratman dove into her back from above, striking her just above the hips and making use of the fact that Turians were, at the end of the day, top-heavy. Eteon didn't have time to warm out of the grim as she heard the creaking of composites and as she fell forward made sure to roll onto her back. The improvised pin didn't work and Ratman scurried away, but not before getting grabbed by Eteon at the leg and being hauled in the opposite direction towards a wall.

 

Ratman caught himself before he made contact, but that time gave the Cabal just enough to right herself and crouch into a fighting stance. The Turian was silent as Ratman growled. "******."

 

She raised her left hand and with a twitch of the thumb a nightshade blade launched itself and though the man dodged it the blade shattered against the wall behind him, dousing his back and hair with the poison. He let out a long scream of pain as the clothes burned off his body and his hair, ratty as it was, started to fall off with the chemical smell of acids. His clothes fell away without a clasp at the back to show off-white fitted armour underneath protecting the rest of his body from the properties of the venom.

 

Eteon saw the opening and took it, warping forward to strike the man but as she did so he swiped his left hand in a wild arc across her visor. It surprised her more than anything as optical disappeared under a torrent of brown-red liquid. She followed through with her strike though it only glanced across whatever part of Ratman's body was in the way. There was a quiet curse as her suit told her that the defence drone had activated once again to keep someone from striking at her back.

 

Warping vertically out of the way she was able to wipe away most of the liquid before phasing another time onto a large stack of crates. It was something putrid, that much was certain, and it clung to her hands and visor like tar. Optics, especially thermal were displayed and captured from her helmet so that the perspectives on the HUD matched up, but right now her thermal scan was completely distorted by whatever the sludge was. The hell is this? She leapt up to another stack of crates when the Rat hurled himself into the bottom of the stack to try and make it collapse. He followed and started climbing up the next stack.

 

Lifting up one of the crates with her biotics glowing she increased the mass and tossed it down the stack at Ratman. Fast like tossed with the weight of a softball, and momentous like a truck he managed to scurry underneath it by the blisters on his scalp. He began giggling in a mad gleefulness, teeth bared as he leapt up and tried to grab at the Cabal. She blocked his attempts to grab her but after dodging low she was again thrown off balance. Sliding along the top of the crates she had to warp herself again off of the stack and onto a pile of refuse.

 

It seemed that the more the man was denied his kill the more dogged he became, and barely a second after she escaped the second pounce Ratman was baring down on her again. The loose metal and scrap was in a broad pile, almost like a sandy embankment of nuts and metal. The Cabal tried to keep the man back by drawing her shotgun again so she could change the momentum but even on uneven grounds he was incredibly fast. Eventually, once she was running out of room she holstered her gun again and waited a moment.

 

The rat charged. 

 

This time, she grabbed him by the neck and the right arm, immobilizing both before breaking her stance left and increasing their total mass. Gravity and metal later the rat had slid face-down on seven meters of jagged metal, enough that Eteon was disgusted by the blood staining her armour and tossed him aside once they had reached the bottom. Even as the body bounced though, the giggling, now gurgling was heard, as he pulled himself up off the ground. "YOU LOSE B*TCH"

 

With a haze of blood breaking her vision from the long laceration along his arm, he was suddenly in front of her. The cornered rat biting the cat, and he dug his claws into the side of the soft material connecting her upper arms to the shoulders of her armour. It broke the seal, if for a moment, and the same sludge that had stuck to her visor earlier started to seep into her veins.

 

The poison, though, was not fast acting, and despite the pain Eteon roared and with the man in such close proximity and gloating victory, stabbed him in the lungs with her blades, the thin nightshade poison burning into his veins and tainting his bloodstream. Tossing him to the ground for a moment she could feel sickness grab her by the lungs and her heart. It was like a plague had entered her system as was starting a revolution against health. She tore off her helmet to breath the stale air of the room and bared her teeth at the man on the ground wheezing like a drowning pig.

 

The venom was acting now. It was in his eyes, the fear of a long, drawn out, painful death. Eteon picked him up, tossed him over her shoulder and walked to the wall of the room towards the mangled cross he had been standing on earlier.  A row of spikes were jutting out of the bottom of the structure and with lazy displeasure she dropped him on top of them, the pointed metal piercing his lungs and his stomach, but missing his spinal cord. "You get the long death, rat."

 

She kneeled as the ratman screamed in silent agony. "Nightshade venom expands rapidly when exposed to a vaccum, and right now your entire body is compromised. You're going into space, and when you're there you will live for the fifteen seconds it takes for the venom to destroy your lungs, ruin your organs, and melt your spine, before literally bursting from your body."

 

Barely a fearful whimper could be heard before the man disappeared, and Eteon fell backwards onto the floor of the dark room.

[Cknarf]

Frank launched himself as far as he could, as the grip slipped away from the lever.  He reached for the platform as he fell, only to come up short, his fingertips brushing against the edge.  He bounced off various bits of tech on the way down, slowing his fall, before landing flat on his back. He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a few deep breaths.

Still alive.

He sat up. "Ha! Did you see that sh*t, Rezal?"  He asked, while reaching for his helmet. "Rezal?"

Frank rose to his feet.  Rounding the pillar, he saw Avan tending to Irina. The large krogan's body lay nearby. 

Holy sh*t, they did it.

"She gonna be alright?"

Avan nodded. "Probably, but  she's gonna be sore tomorrow."

"Vayne?"

Avan shook his head.

"Damn..."

Frank made his way over to Vayne's position.  The krogan sat motionless against the wall, broken, and bleeding. Frank pressed his ear against Vayne's chest, in an attempt to listen for a heartbeat.

I don't even know where their hearts are.

Vayne let out a short grunt.

Frank smiled. "Ha! you tough old bastard!" He applied medigel to Vayne's wounds the best he could. "Hang in there, big guy."

Frank returned to Avan.  "He's still alive, but he's in rough shape.  We need to get him out of here."

"How the hell are we going to move him?"

"We'll figure something out." Frank assured him. "Where's Eteon?"

"She hasn't come back yet."

F*ck.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Irina came to. The room was very blurry and spinning somewhat. She saw Avan kneeling over her.

 

"Mmmfffff." She groaned.

 

"Easy, don't try to get up." Avan said as he turned her on her side in case she vomited.

 

"My arm."

 

"Yes, I know you're wounded."

 

"No, right wrist.... hurts.... like... a son-of-a-b****.... mmmffff.... did you save it?"
 

"Yes."

 

Irina smiled and started to fall unconscious again.

 

"Rest."

[Cainhurst Crow]

Vayne looked to frank as he moved a hand up, bringing it to motion towards his chest, where his krogan dagger still lay burried in him. The blade stuck out for about an inch or two, jaggedly broken when golt had snapped it.

 

His attention though went towards irina, hearing her speak and seeing she was still alive. Avan was tending to her, frank was nearby, and he grunted a few more times as he managed to finally open his mouth to speak, "Get her...outta here...tell her...she's..." He coughed a bit, hurting all over and his armor covered in soot from the fire, "She's officially...krantt status..." he said to her as he leaned back against the wall.

 

He wasn't going to slip unconscious, but it was clear just from talking he was in rough shape, his voice weak and labored. Sitting here...it might not be so bad for a while. Just lean back and rest a bit.

[Terca]

Eteon's vision was blurred as she picked herself back up and walked over to the part of the room where she had warped in. It was difficult, despite the room having rather distinct landmarks, since her brain seemed to get stuck on a loop. She'd think something, then change topic in her head, but she would always return to some slight detail and hem and haw, her mind going nowhere even as she trudged along.

 

Eventually, after traveling in a complete circle she realized that where she began, near the cross, was actually where she had entered. It surprised and unnerved her, how could she have forgotten such a simple thing? What was in the venom? Exhaustion was normal after a lot of biotic movement and manipulation but this was abnormal, she was too sluggish. Eventually, after laying her head against the wall for a moment she tossed herself through.

She landed, on her back, bleeding by the arms, on the bottom of the control room in engineering, barely conscious.

[Kel Riever]

Commander Selani, though sitting casually in her command chair, had concerns that passed at a furious speed through her head.  Since the Janiri had lost contact with the people aboard the Medusa, she could not help but think of the worst.  Scans had revealed the jamming, yet it didn’t help her.  Several long minutes passed, and VERA all too perfectly predicted the time it would take the pirate ship to be irretrievably captured in Vem Osca’s gravity well.

 

With less than five minutes on the clock, it was becoming nearly unbearable to Selani, though she kept her calm outward appearance.  To her, it was more like paralysis, though if she could think to do anything, she would have sprung into action.  Then, as the minutes ticked away, it became obvious to all on the bridge of the Janiri that someone had succeeded.

 

The enhanced visual image of the Medusa showed her thrusters firing, and the vessel was correcting herself.  A collective sigh of relief, however, was swallowed again, as the thrusters almost immediately went out.  But then again, seconds later, the Medusa’s thrusters fired again and stayed on.  Though her course was hardly directed, the Medusa was pulling out of the trap she had been placed in.

“As soon as those guns are silenced, move us in,” Selani ordered.  Someone still had to be in control of the bridge, or at least the weaponry on the pirate vessel.

[Kel Riever]

To Anika, Vem Osca loomed threateningly before the bow of the ship she called home.  Losing contact with anyone else due to the jamming left her isolated, and had revealed why there was no dead man switch.  The silver lining was that Anika could tell the jamming was indiscriminate, and since nobody had discovered her moving on the outside of the hull, it was near impossibly for anyone to send someone to respond to her if she was discovered.

At the four-and-a-half minute mark, before the Medusa pitched itself into oblivion, Anika could feel it.  Her ship was correcting course.  The team heading to engineering must have made it through.

[Cknarf]

It didn't take long to find Eteon, helmetless, lying on the floor of engineering.

"There you are!"

Frank crouched beside her. 

"You had me worried for a minute, there."

Although her wounds appeared minor, and her eyes were open, she didn't respond.

"Dammit."

Frank lifted her head up, while pulling a flashlight from his belt.  He watched her pupils closely, as he shined it into her eyes.  They constricted, and she squinted a little.

"It's something." He shrugged, before turning the light to the wound on one of her arms.  

What the hell is that?

He gently poked at the wound, and examined the goop on his fingers.  Mixed with the blue, was a dark, almost black substance, that stretched as he pulled his fingers apart.

"Ew." He wiped the mess on his thigh.

"I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" Frank carefully grabbed her arm, and made an attempt to pull her onto his shoulder.

Thaaaaats not gonna work.

The 230 lb turian was just a little too much for him.

"Sorry about this." He grabbed her by the 'collar', and began dragging her towards the others.

Frank propped her up next to Vayne.

"You should have told me, I would have helped..."

"Figured you were busy with these guys." Frank panted, short of breath.  He waved Avan over. "Come take a look at this."

Avan crouched next to Frank.

"There's some kind of... I don't know... goo?  It's all over the wound."

"You haven't applied medi-gel yet?"

"No.  I would have, but there's... that." Frank wrinkled his nose.  "Should we just slap it on there, or what?"

[Cknarf]

"That's as clean as they're going to get." Avan examined one of Eteon's woulds closely, while preparing some more medi-gel.

"Any idea what that stuff was?"

"It's hard to say.  Judging by the way she's breathing... I don't know, maybe some sort of toxin?" Avan shrugged. 

"F***. We have to get her back to the Janiri."

"How? Even if we got everyone back to the shuttles, we don't have a way to contact them.  And do you feel that?"

Frank concentrated on the steady vibrations that Avan was referring to.

"That would be the Medusa's guns. Until the bridge is under control, there's nothing more we can do."

Frank shook his head. "Wait! I've got an idea."  He ran back towards the engines, and returned with a wheeled utility cart.

"We get her to medical, and--"

"And then what, Frank?" Avan looked up to him. "Are we suddenly going to become doctors as soon as we step through the door?"

"Well maybe there's something we could--"

"Frank..." Avan stopped him.

"Goddammit."

"We need you at the controls, in case something changes, okay?  Can you do that?"

"I..." 

"She'll be fine."

Frank sighed. "I'm on it."

[Terca]

Eteon had a moment of clarity through the haze and was able to pick up the fact that she was back in the... Where in Engineering was she again? She looked to the left... Or right, it was hard to tell and saw Vayne, bleeding but alive. And then there was Irina... Where was she? The Turian scanned left to right slowly before blinking slowly. Somewhere. Eteon nodded to herself in her head, outward she was completely unable to move for one reason or another.

 

She could see Frank and Avan moving to the controls. Probably. Where else would they be going? Away? Escaping?

 

F*CK THIS. Eteon tossed herself to the side, landing on her right arm with an muffled oomph and taking deep breaths. She could feel the nausea and pain returning. Her throat was coming up dry and sweat was starting to make the contacts of her armour on her body slick. What is this?

 

For minutes she thought, though her memory was hazy, that she was drugged in some way, it was the kind of realization that takes place in the darkness of the mind unimpeded by toxin. Now though... It was sickness. Intense illness which was at the fore of her mind. She had a dozen symptoms but none of them were really making sense. The sweating was particularly bizarre since the Turian species didn't often sweat, mostly the formation of their body allowed for air-flow to cool them down but right now... Sweat was an example of old disease, and old disease which was evolved past. So what had infected her? And how?

[Kel Riever]

Iyana felt the Medusa’s thrusters moving the ship, and the readouts on the bridge confirmed that the vessel was pulling out of the deteriorating orbit towards Vem Osca.  Luscious felt a chill up his neck as Iyana began a clicking sound in the back of her throat to some strange meter.

“Someone certainly is resourceful,” Iyana finally said, then stopped making her unnerving sound.

Luscious became concerned.  “You think Stone will still try to come?”

Iyana scoffed. “For that captain’s chair she thinks is hers, I’m counting on it.”

Waiving his hand in the air, Luscious said, “If she’s makes it up here to the bridge alive, I’ll take care of her myself.  She needs to pay for the ruin she’s brought.”

“You seem very determined.”

“Stone is dangerous.  I understand that now.  Her and her people murdered the crew protecting this ship under my command.  People like you who had my best interests in mind.  I’m through letting it happen.”

Iyana thought to herself momentarily, then picked up the helmet of her armor that lay at rest on a panel.  She flashed her baby blue eyes innocently at Luscious one last time before she placed the helm on her head.  The helm, equipped with a sophisticated voice modulator, allowed her to speak and be heard clearly.

“You’re going to protect me, Luscious?” Iyana asked inquisitively.

“In my own way,” Luscious answered his half-drunken state providing him with the bravado he needed.  “If it comes to that.”

[Redbelle]

"Look! Are you sure we can't just talk about this"?

 

A gout of flame came rushing at her from within the ladder's access ways and Jess pulled back as the force of the flame pushed it past the corner where she'd taken refuge. She was at one of the ships relay nodes. This close to the bridge bundles of cable were tied together from many points of the ship and all fed into  several cabinet's all crammed together that blinked green running lights. Those in turn ran up to the bridge and allowed the Medusa's bridge direct access to helm control, sensor data, most of the ship's weapons and barrier emitters. As useful as it would be to have it all networked through one system the Medusa's old approach meant that if one system went down, the others would stay up. Of course no one had eer considered that a crazy person with a flamer might one day come crawling through the access ways.

 

Another burst of flame shot by her and Jess turned her head away in reflex. Even in her armored spacesuit and robes she could feel the temperature rising. Could hear the air cooler's trying to bring the cabinet's down to a working temperature as they detected a heat build up.

 

"Stop flaming the flaming ship dammit"! Jess shouted back only for another burst forcing her back into cover. Jess clucked her teeth and checked her arsenal. All her flashbangs would soon be on their way to the bridge via the elevator ahead of her if she didn't get this one soon. She ducked her head out again quickly and got another burst, but she'd managed to spot the one doing the firing. Looking around she saw large power couplings going into the cabinet's. The amount of power these old workhorses needed was frightful compared to modern standards but Jess wasn't to fussed. Grabbing one of the power cables she momentarily checked what she would be cutting off from the bridge and saw she'd grabbed the one for the ships sensors. Well that wasn't good. Then again the cabinet's were overheating and they'd lose them all anyway if that moron wasn't stopped. Reaching to undo the fastenings she yanked it out and the cabinet went dark. With her back to the wall Jess looked down and to the side where she saw a metal girder holding up the floor. The one with the flamer wasn't wearing a space armored suit. She hoped that meant he wasn't insulated as she was......

 

When the last burst of flame subsided she reached out and jammed the power cable onto the girder that electrified the plates around it, at the same time the discharge shot along the girder, hitting plate after plate after plate.... including the one the man was standing on. There was a sharp exclamation and Jess pulled the cable away at the same time she drew Sinbad in a smooth action and shifted out of cover.

 

The one with the flamer was propped, sagging against the bulkheads, his flamer dangling uselessly in his hand when Jess rammed home a clip into his torso. He crumpled and Jess made to go and return the power coupling back when she noticed the power discharge had melted the contact's of the cable

 

"Dammit"!

 

Oh well, they'd be flying blind for awhile till she had time to replace it. Securing the cable she moved back out and across to the fallen man, stopping to eject the spent thermal clip as put in a new one before reaching down to pick up the flamer.

 

"If anyone's going to shoot up my ship with flames luv.... It's going to be me. Captain's privilege"!

[Cainhurst Crow]

Essul hunkered down still in cover, still braced with his back pressed firmly against it after his last sniper shot. He was feeling a dull sensation running up his back as he waited silently, the sense of touch letting him know kt would be time to take his next dose of medication soon.

The machine gunner was still active, and their cover patterns weren't consistent enough to make much progress. Their rate of fire and weapon choice had them more or less pinned in the single way corridor. They needed an opening for attack, or they'd be stuck wakting for the gunner to hopefully run out of thermal clips soon.

What morgan popped out and let loose a stream of fire though the machine gunner seems to get the message Angelo into cover, waiting out the firefight it seemed. Essuls head popped out of cover as he heard the so in of battle change to show this, and his eyes opens wide.

An opening was made, and it was time to seize it.

Essul dashed out of cover as he ran at a full sprint down the halls ttowards the cover the machine Gunn was using. He moved like a bolt of lightning, crouch in a forward leaning low Sprint as he zigged side to side, arms glowing with biotic energy as he flicked out his wrists. Two long cables deployed from his gauntlets, grabbing a hold of both as they ignited with biotic shimmering blue energy. The whip cables left an eerie trail as easily ran full Sprint, feeling a few shots strike from behind from morgans shots and paying no head to them as he skidded to a halt, his momentum dragging him forward as he raised his arms over his head, coming to a stop on the side of the machine gunners cover as he brought down his whips where the merchant stood.

The two whips crashed down and seemed to expand the entire area they stru outwards, like some massive grgravitational force had shoved the air out of the area hard enough to make the metal around it groan in protest. Sparks and shimmer of eezo energy surged from the spot as essul used slam on the gunner, crumbling them go the ground as their body was subjected to many amounts of stronger gravity in the area the whips struck, as well as the enhanced kinetic force of the massive whips themselves.

Essul didn't waste time however, as he reached down towards the merchant and picked them up, hearing a groan of pain as he tossed her out into the wall opposite the cover, slamming them viscerally into the open and exposed line of fire as their damaged armor and shot shields were torn through by assault rifle rounds, breathing heavily as he watched it happen, flicking his wrists back as the cables retracted themselves back into his gauntlets.

[Redbelle]

"Stupid pirate's pirating pirates". Jess muttered as she clambered up the second to last ladder before it would lead to a recessed hatchway leading to the bridge. "Stupid ladder's". She grumbled as she reached for anothe rrung to pull herself up before something tugged back a her. She stopped and looked down to see her robes had caught on something. She reached down and tugged at it. "Stupid robes"! She muttered, finally pulling it free and tearing part of the fabric as she did.

 

She resumed her climb to the last ladder and pulled herself up with the flamer strapped to her back. As much as she didn't want to unleash a weapon like it on the bridge, she'd most likely need something to keep the intruder's at bay. And if she met Iyana......

 

Seeing her well done before the tenderizing may go aganist the principles of cooking, but for that woman, an exception could be made before Jess served that woman her ass.